Baby Essentials - What is a must for First time mommies? And what is unnecessary....

First time mommy here, with practically zero baby knowledge.... SO I have been polling, researching, reading, and requesting advice from been there done that moms! I am attempting to compile a list of the absolute must have essentials - things you couldn't function without on a daily basis... Necessities, or things that just make life easier..... I have found that something's that are advertised and raved about just aren't necessary. IE wipe warmer, diaper genie, and some other things. So I attempting to find out what I need to have ready before baby is born to be semi-prepared. I know this is going to be trial and error for quite sometime, but I would love any helpful hints or advice! TIA

Ami89

June 6th, 2014 06:57 PM

Re: Baby Essentials - What is a must for First time mommies? And what is unnecessary.

This is my first pregancy too, but I do have some advice as I come from a big family..... Wipe warmer are useless, and they can dry out wipes. To save money, and incase you baby doesn't like it, buy second hand. I'm buying or got second hand clothes, a swing, a bouncy chair. Get a new crib and carseat!!!! I recommend getting a baby carrier, it free up your hands, it a must have.

isawastar

July 1st, 2014 02:19 PM

A rock n play. My son can't sleep flat due to reflux, and this has the perfect incline. It's kind of small and easily moved, which is a plus too.

A medical kit - one of those things with medicine droppers. Better to have it before you need it.

Nail clippers. I do like the special baby clippers because they give me more control.

Different kinds of diapers. DH loved Huggies with his daughter but my son had so many leaks it was ridiculous and uses Pampers.

Calming lotion. It smells wonderful and he sleeps soon after I put it on him at night.

Burp cloths and bibs. I like Gerber flannel and gauze burp cloths and any terry cloth bibs the best for their absorbency.

If you're bottle feeding, use anti colic bottles to reduce the amount of air swallowed. I love Mam bottles, personally.

ducksaresnazzy

July 8th, 2014 08:26 AM

Re: Baby Essentials - What is a must for First time mommies? And what is unnecessary.

okay. i totally overbought for my daughter. aside from your basics like wipes, diapers, (i wouldn't buy any newborn size diapers. the hospital will give you some and most babies aren't in nb for long, so a stockpile of nb sizes is useless). we didn't have a diaper genie and we're all still alive.

our swing was a LIFESAVER. oh my god. i wish she still fit in it.

i have heard boys leak a lot in huggies. i don't know why. from shopping around, i have found that personally, pampers baby dry diapers fit the snuggest. that's what we use on Emma.

as far as clothes, you'll mostly keep the kid in onsies for awhile. you just won't have the energy to plan outfits. and if you do, one diaper change in and those pants are staying off. Emma didn't consistently wear pants until she was over 2 months old. by then she was in size 3-6 pants i believe so all her nb/ 0-3 size pants were never worn. oh, and those baby sleepers! Emma lived in those. the zip-up ones. the buttons get confusing at 3 am with a squirmy baby.

if you can, invest in a travel system. ours is a graco something and came with infant car seat, base, and a stroller that we can use until she's a toddler.

hmm. we didn't even use our bottle warmer. we are bad parents and use the microwave. you just have to really shake the bottle after the rid it of any hot spots. and i have never heard of a wipe warmer.

if you have two cars, get two diaper bags. keep them both stocked of clothes, wipes, diapers, toys, everything but fresh bottles. then all you need to do to get baby ready isstrap them in the carseat. our hospital gave us a gift basket that included a little bottle cooler, and we just keep that in a cupboard by the fridge for when we go out.

nail clippers. we had to clip Emma's the day after she was born.

socks. socks. socks. babies will always be pulling on their socks and they'll be falling off. get ones with a nice elastic on the ankle, not a loose opening. those will fit nicer and stay on longer.

LUSHaye

July 10th, 2014 03:02 PM

Re: Baby Essentials - What is a must for First time mommies? And what is unnecessary.

Ooooh gosh.

A good stroller is important. We got one that has a matching carseat so we can connect them when we go out.

A swing! The one we got comes apart so you can have just the bouncer. Especially helpful if you're the only one home and you'd like to take a shower or something. You can just take the bouncer with the baby in it and place them in the bathroom with you.

A baby wrap. This is one of my favorite things. Of course it's not for everyone or for every baby, but if it ends up working for you, it can be great. Keeps your baby close and your hands free.

Lots of onesies! Try to plan out the sizes with the seasons (if you have different ones) that way they you can switch to them seamlessly as baby grows and gets older.

Nail clippers.

Bibs and burp cloths. I think I favor bibs more during the day.

Boppy. Sometimes I'll feed my son in his boppy and that's also what we' used when we first started tummy time (he was on oxygen).

Things I think are unnecessary include wipe warmers and bottle warmers.

LinzyLu

July 11th, 2014 06:51 AM

Re: Baby Essentials - What is a must for First time mommies? And what is unnecessary.

Thank you all! This is awesome and so helpful, hopefully I can finally manage to get my other half to buckle down and baby shop with me now that we have some general direction to go in!

NintendHo

September 28th, 2014 05:52 PM

Re: Baby Essentials - What is a must for First time mommies? And what is unnecessary.

With my son, the things I LOVED the most were:
His swing. He had this fisher price(?) one that could swing back and forth, side to side, circles, all kinds of crazy stuff. LOVED it. Especially when I had to do chores like Vacuum and whatnot. Automatic Breastpump. I had a double breastpump by...The First Years, I believe. the miPump double automatic breastpump. If you're planning on breast feeding, this is AWESOME. I loved the thing sooo much. <3
Bumbo/Bimbo/Bembo Chair thing. lol I don't remember what it was called but I loved this thing. I used it kind of as a portable highchair for when I went to family gatherings/bday parties. It made it easy to feed him once he started in on baby food and then I didn't get quite as messy. lol key word there is "quite" haha. And even outside of using it like that, it was just awesome to have him able to sit up long before he was able to on his own. I used to like to read to my son or show him flashcards and I'd put him in his little chair and do this and it was a fun time. ((:
Hm...those are really the only things I can think of right off the top of my head. Baby Monitor wasn't really all that useful. In fact, the one thing that did save my son from choking to death was my dog, not the baby monitor. -.- Idk maybe i just had a crappy one? I prefered using either the Avent bottles or the Playtex ones that had the plastic inserts. My son was never colic-y (sp?) or had much gas or anything and I like contributing it to these bottles. Also, my favorite kind of diapers were Luv's. I used huggies and pampers but I was 17 and poor and once I discovered that Luv's did just as good of a job for us (sometimes better!) and that they were usually like 10 bucks less than the other brand I never went back. Then I switched to cloth and was really happy but thats another story. ^-^"

Yeah, so I'd say my must haves for my son and being a teen mom were:
Swing (both the large one with all the different settings and mobile and stuff and the portable fold up one)
Luv's Diapers
Playtex or Avent Bottles
First Years miPump Breast Pump
Bumbo chair
EDIT: oh! I forgot one thing: my Moby wrap. That was a lifesaver!

I hope this helped!! ((:

And i agree about the wipe warmer. I thougth it'd be awesome during the winter but honestly I ended up wasting precious money and materials because they got dried out and then almost burned! (they turned brownish) so I'd def skip the wipey warmer if i was you! (((:

oops i didn't realize this was such an old thread. lol ^-^" hopefully my advice helps someone! lol

Kinsma90

December 6th, 2014 03:37 AM

Re: Baby Essentials - What is a must for First time mommies? And what is unnecessary.

I know this is old but there are so many things on the lists above that either never bout or got and never used, or got and used and hated.

I think that different strokes rings true here. I'm sure I swear by many things that some people did not like/use, as well.

I think they best way to not over-buy is to not buy something until you need it. My oldest is about to turn 3 and we have never once in her entire life had the need for a stroller. So, I have no intention of buying one for this baby.

RLBuchanan

February 26th, 2015 02:01 PM

Re: Baby Essentials - What is a must for First time mommies? And what is unnecessary.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for this thread!

Tindra

April 17th, 2015 02:42 AM

Re: Baby Essentials - What is a must for First time mommies? And what is unnecessary.